The present invention relates generally to satellite communications and, more particularly, to a filter unit for satellite communications.
In satellite communications, signal quality may be susceptible to communication environments such as terrestrial topology and weather conditions. A filter may usually be used to suppress interference or noise in received signals.
FIG. 1A is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional filter unit 1. Referring to FIG. 1A, the filter unit 1 may include a base 11 and a number of tuning pins 12 each corresponding to one of a number of grooves 112 of the base 11. The depth of each groove 112 may be adjusted by a corresponding one of the tuning pins 12 so as to filter signals at frequencies of interest. However, the conventional filter unit 1 may generally include an alloy of aluminum and zinc, in which the weight percentage of aluminum is greater than that of zinc. Such weight percentage may result in undesirable surface roughness of the grooves 112, which may adversely affect the function of a filtering space 111 defined by the grooves 112 and in turn the performance of the filter unit 1.